It was shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday when young men started spilling into Delhi Park, jumping over the wire fence, strolling across the play lot toward the basketball court where another group of young men were playing. They were members of different gangs, but the park, usually considered Delhi Aces turf, was treated as neutral territory for a day. "The word's been around that they're trying to stop violence," said a trim, dark-haired young man who spoke for the Little Brook gang.

BEIRUT - In the lead-up to the so-called Geneva II peace conference this week, the Syrian government has quietly pursued a campaign of truce-making with opposition-held communities in and around Damascus that could further weaken the opposition movement and bolster President Bashar Assad's global standing. For months, the government has been negotiating cease-fires with civilian leaders of neighborhoods and suburbs of the capital that have been under the control of opposition fighters and therefore under bombardment and sieges that have kept food and medicine from reaching residents.

Rather than advancing the Mideast peace process, President Bush's bid to delay housing loan guarantees for Israel is "really undermining Israel's position in the process and making it less likely that Israel will be forthcoming," said Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City). Berman, one of Israel's leading supporters in Congress, is expected to play a key role in the handling of the sensitive loan guarantee issue as a member of both the House Budget Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee.

BEIRUT - Despite deep divisions, the major U.S.-backed Syrian opposition bloc voted Saturday to participate in peace talks scheduled to begin next week in Switzerland, ending months of uncertainty about whether the group would attend the long-anticipated negotiations. “We are going to the conference without heads held high for those who are witnessing the most heinous massacres in history,” a sullen Ahmad Jarba, the coalition president, told reporters gathered at a hotel outside Istanbul, Turkey, where the opposition delegates gathered.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, preparing for a second round of talks with the United States today, said it will focus on persuading Washington to put its weight behind plans to hold an international conference on Mideast peace. That proposal has previously been rejected by Israel. The United States has said it prefers that the two sides hold direct talks. In an interview Tuesday, PLO spokesman Ahmed Abderrahman also said the PLO will reject any U.S.

TEHRAN -- Iran hosted a peace conference on Syria on Wednesday titled "Political Solution, Regional Stability. " The Iranian news media dubbed the gathering in Tehran the "Friends of Syria Conference," a term used by a coalition of Western and Arab states that support the Syrian opposition forces fighting against forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. It came as Russian and U.S. officials are trying to organize a peace conference on Syria in Geneva next month. Iran, Assad's key regional ally, has yet to be invited to the Geneva conference, spurring some observers to believe Wednesday's conference was a move by Tehran to portray itself as an important player. Iranian media reported that officials from 40 countries and representatives from regional and international organizations were to take part in the conference.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said Wednesday that he is willing to join four other Central American leaders at a conference to discuss regional peace proposals. But Ortega insisted that any summit meeting must deal with more than a Costa Rica-proposed peace plan and should be coupled with direct talks between his leftist Sandinista government and the United States.

A conference aimed at restoring a central government in Somalia has been postponed until March 31, the leaders of two major factions said. Ali Mahdi Mohamed, warlord for north Mogadishu, and Hussein Mohammed Aidid, in control of most of the southern part of the capital, said lack of financing and transportation forced them to delay the meeting.

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has agreed "in principle" to participate in a U.S.- and Russian-sponsored peace conference aimed at ending the violence in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Moscow learned of the decision to take part during a recent visit by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad, ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in the Russian capital. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus. Organizers hope to hold the peace talks early next month in Geneva.

Given the failure of previous efforts to find a diplomatic solution to Syria's civil war, it might seem the height of naivete for the United States to join Russia - the protector and arms supplier of President Bashar Assad - in trying to arrange an international peace conference. But, given the alternatives, the Obama administration is right to pursue that possibility and to press Syrian opposition groups to participate, even without a guarantee that Assad would step aside. Prospects for the proposed conference in Geneva, already uncertain, worsened Thursday when opposition leaders said they wouldn't send representatives until Iranian and Hezbollah fighters left the country and "massacres" stopped.

Getting into wars is easier than getting out of them. Could the same logic apply to peace conferences? Indeed, could U.S. diplomacy - however well intentioned - actually make matters worse? Secretary of State John F. Kerry has two diplomatic tracks in the works: ending a civil war in Syria and promoting a peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Both will be difficult to get started, but the real challenge will come the day after. Diplomatic conferences and events are usually good for one of two things: launching a serious process of negotiation or concluding one. What the U.S. confronts with both the Syrian civil war and the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is a kind of twilight zone that's betwixt and between.

TEHRAN -- Iran hosted a peace conference on Syria on Wednesday titled "Political Solution, Regional Stability. " The Iranian news media dubbed the gathering in Tehran the "Friends of Syria Conference," a term used by a coalition of Western and Arab states that support the Syrian opposition forces fighting against forces loyal to President Bashar Assad. It came as Russian and U.S. officials are trying to organize a peace conference on Syria in Geneva next month. Iran, Assad's key regional ally, has yet to be invited to the Geneva conference, spurring some observers to believe Wednesday's conference was a move by Tehran to portray itself as an important player. Iranian media reported that officials from 40 countries and representatives from regional and international organizations were to take part in the conference.

BEIRUT - With violence increasingly spilling over Syria's borders, refugees swamping its neighbors and new arms transfers to both sides on the horizon, a solution to the Syrian conflict has rarely seemed so urgent - and so far beyond reach. U.S. and Russian officials this month raised hope for a peace conference that could lead to a transitional government and, eventually, free elections. The accord between Washington and Moscow, long at loggerheads on Syria, followed a United Nations-backed formula long ignored as outside powers on both sides pushed their Syrian proxies for victory.

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has agreed "in principle" to participate in a U.S.- and Russian-sponsored peace conference aimed at ending the violence in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Moscow learned of the decision to take part during a recent visit by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad, ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in the Russian capital. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus. Organizers hope to hold the peace talks early next month in Geneva.

BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has agreed “in principle” to participate in a U.S.-Russian sponsored peace conference aimed at ending the violence in Syria, Russia officials said Friday. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters in Moscow that Assad's administration had agreed to take part in the session. No precise date has been set, but reports indicate that the sponsors are hopeful of conducting the conference early next month in Geneva.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapped up her Middle East shuttle diplomacy tour Thursday, leaving Israeli officials seemingly reassured and Palestinians searching for a silver lining. Rice, who flew from Jerusalem to London to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah II, essentially shot down the primary Palestinian demands after several days of back-and-forth meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders in advance of a proposed peace conference this fall.